Analogue: A Hate Story (Rage Quit)
by TamariMizu
Summary: Inspector Montgomery Sutton, of the UCSA, spends his days investigating criminal cases on Earth, as well as starship derelicts in deep space as atonement for an unforgivable crime from his youth. What will await this grumpy misanthrope when he encounters the biggest challenge of his career, the UKSPA Mugunghwa? *Hyun-ae, OC [Analogue is copyrighted to Christine Love]
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

The 30 meter long wedge-shaped dull grey ship silently drifted in the inky backdrop of innumerable hard pinpoints of light facing the massive engine block of a centuries old shattered spacecraft hull. The only decoration on the Scout craft besides the Hull ID-02461 was a partly abraded white swan logo on the prow encircled by the cursive letters _UCSA White Princess_. Just below the left side of the cockpit window was a black stencil of a robed figure pushing a raft along with a long pole next to 27 tick marks. The only sign of humanity was the slowly strobing running lights, red and green directional lamps, and the bright light pouring out of the curved cockpit window. The miniscule pressurized cockpit took up less than a tenth of the ship's volume as the rest of the hull was reserved for salvage storage bins, the antimatter reactor and its currently idle hyperdive. Inside the cluttered, cramped interior, a tall disheveled man with tousled brown hair, a five day growth of stubble and an eyepatch concealing the missing eye and the faint scars on the right side of his face sat on a futon in his black boxers and grey sleeveless undershirt. He swore under his breath as his only remaining sienna brown eye was intently focused on hooking up the severely damaged data event recorder from the hulk outside to his portable computer tablet. Ugly, exposed chromed mechanical limbs replaced his right arm past the elbow, and both legs above the knees.

Music from The Police blared inside the closet-sized space. Monty smirked and sang along to Sting's falsetto, "Roxanne…you don't have to put on the red light! Roxannnnnneee…"

The master terminal chimed once, cutting off the music, and interrupting his train of thought. His handsome face furrowed and he threw the connecting cord at the holographic keyboard, cutting off the incoming call. He muttered in annoyance, "Fuck off Mason!" He stretched out and yawned. "Computer, skip to track 284!"

He scratched absently at his incipient beard and bathed in the opening instrumental. He sang off-key with abandon, "There's a little black spot on the sun today…it's the same old thing as yesterday…"

The console chimed again, and Mason's baritone twang intruded on his day again, "Nice pipes there Sutton!"

Monty walked over and slumped in the padded console chair in sullen defeat. It seemed Rex Mason wasn't taking no for an answer today. He was glad that he had disabled the cockpit cameras so his dispatch officer couldn't see his maimed wreck of a body. He snapped, "What the fuck do you want?"

"Was that the Beetles you were listening to? Why do you like that two millennia old crap for anyway?"

Monty refused to take the bait, but his tapping metallic finger gave away his irritation, "What's the job? I'm still downloading the _Lorelai's_ black box that I just spent 3 hours EVA to extract."

"That can wait! I've got you a juicy one! One of our probes just RADAR pinged a true beauty!"

"Get to the point," the field investigator growled.

"Such an eager beaver, aren't we?" Mason laughed uproariously, "Lucky for your antisocial ass, this one's a surefire derelict. No need to waste those charming interpersonal skills of yours with no one living to talk to. It's a Korean generation ship in a decaying orbit of Antares B called the…the _UKSPA Mu-Mug-gong-wha-what_? What the hell kinda name is that?"

Monty acidly cut in, " _UKSPA Mugunghwa_. It's named after the Unified Korean national flower, the Rose of Sharon."

"Good memory there, buddy! I forgot your grandma was Korean sometimes! Poor bastards never made it to their new home. Anyhoo, the Saeju Colony Historical Society will pay top credit for the ship's data logs. Its 600 years overdue, any data that old is worth a lot. Also they want to see if there are survivors or technology."

"Tech for sure; but there's no one left to save. A distress beacon has had ample time to spread many light years out. It'll be nothing but corpses." He remotely powered up the ion thrusters to send the hulk of the nearby _Lorelai_ to its fiery doom in the nearby gas giant. Charon the Ferryman had just sent the long deceased crew of the cargo ship to their eternal rest. Then he calmly typed in the downloaded coordinates as the whine of the hyperdrive capacitors powering up caused the ship to shudder. A metal shroud unfolded and shielded the cockpit canopy, "I'm on it. Bye."

Mason's voice turned somber, "Yeah, you're probably right. See if you can get their security AI *Mute or navigation AI *Star online. Either one should have the encrypted files. Happy huntin'!"

The _Starship White Princess_ screeched into an alternate dimension like it was being tortured.

…

Five days later the ship phased back into normal space, shivering as the fabric of space-time was neatly folded back into the familiar starscape. The shroud over the cockpit neatly bifurcated and retracted back into the hull. Just ahead, bathed in the eerie two tone light from the nearby blue-white giant and its red supergiant twin many AUs away was a massive, white oblong ship that was layered like a submarine sandwich. Its blocky fission reactor deck took up the rear quarter of the vessel. All the windows, running lights and navigation beacons were completely dark. The active and passive scanners were still working as his ship was pinged as soon as he had entered the system. Monty grimly scanned the ship as his nimble scout swooped into a parallel orbit. His worst fears were confirmed when he saw all the bulkhead seals were fully opened indicating that the ship was in vacuum; life signs were equally absent. It was truly a ghost ship. "Fuck me," he murmured to himself as he noted the reactor had obvious external stress fractures in its shielding, although it would take decades for a colonist to absorb a fatal radiation dose. It was operational however, as it was powering critical subsystems and the micrometeoriod deflection field.

Here goes he thought to himself as he toggled the communications array open. "Mugunghwa ujuseon. M nae mal deullini?" He waited but heard nothing but cosmic background white noise. He repeated his query, " _UKSPA Mugungha_. Do you read me?" The only reply was the hissing static. He tried one last time, "Artificial Intelligence *Mute or *Star please respond!" After hearing no reply he sighed in mild exasperation. It looks like it was time to do this the hard way.

A half hour later he set the controls on autoreturn, which would send his ship back to Earth if his biosigns dropped out. He wasn't about to waste his employer's ship if he croaked on an EVA run, or if this damn derelict blew up. Not that there was anyone to miss him if he never came back. After adding a 28th mark next to the cockpit window with his fusion torch he jetted across to his latest target. He finished closing the 1000 meter gap between ships, and magnetized his space suit boots on the airlock threshold. He frowned at the stylized pink flower decorating the hatch. He grumbled, "Computer, commence holotelemetry link." Even if he never made it outside alive, his data feed would provide valuable evidence to anyone that came after him. He used his backpack power fuel cell to activate the controls. Without any difficulty he got the door to open, and the inner hatch quickly followed suit after the outer doors closed. He was mildly surprised when his headlamps illuminated the pitch black deck. For a generation ship designed to carry 2000+ souls it defied sense that the corridors and rooms were completely stripped bare. Even wiring, lights, and equipment were torn away. The only functional devices were the security sensors, which were still obediently recording his every move. The situation must have been dire if they were cannibalizing the ship. He shook his head, "I know there must be bodies here!" He linked up with the base level computer interface and noted all the AIs were in maintenance mode. He conjured up a holographic display from his chest computer and a heads up display over his only functional eye. He typed in _map_ at the command prompt and the 3D display was uploaded to his system. After using a hacking app to uncover the ship system control root menu, he typed in _control_power gravity_ to restore an up and down orientation. All over the ship he felt and heard the faint thuds of heavy objects striking the deck after 600 years of Zero-G. The floor plan indicated that he was on deck 10 out of 12, which according to the Chinese-styled characters indicated that this was Zodiac Deck Rooster. Why did the inhabitants use a preindustrial writing system instead of the expected phonetic Hangul system?

He spoke in numbed disbelief, "Piece of crap ship. What the hell were they thinking?" He found the closest emergency trunk ladder, translated the inscription, and typed in _escape_trunk lotus enable_. The cylindrical door smoothly slid open, and he slowly made his way up to the next deck. His ultimate goal was the circular AI room holding the cylindrical casings for the 6 AI cores on Deck 4. It was a slow climb in a hard vacuum encased in a bulky spacesuit. The hatch above him opened, and out of curiosity he opened the trunk hatch for Zodiac Deck Monkey, only to see the same bleak scavenged deck as the one below. He went up another flight to Zodiac Deck Ram, and was shocked to see clouds of grey dust billow in obscuring his vision. He cursed up a storm and shut the hatch hastily. He brushed off the damned soil off his body and didn't open any more intervening hatches until he was trying to go between deck 5 and 4, and found it was welded shut! "You're shitting me," he spat out.

An hour later, his O2 supply was down to 72% and his cutting torch finally broke apart the crude welds. He got up to Deck 4 and found the Escape trunk hatch was also welded shut! "Fuck!" Another half hour he finally got out to Zodiac Deck Rabbit. He was astonished by what he saw. It looked like an upscale medieval Korean village, complete with period correct wooden architecture grafted onto the metal bulkheads! "Well I'll be damned!" He consulted the map, and found that right next to the AI room was a small alcove marked _Egg Rebirth Chamber_. He decided to check out to see if it was the prized tech the Historical Society was after, took another step, stumbled, and a sound like a twig snapping underfoot caught his attention. He looked down and saw he had just stepped on a freeze-dried body's forearm!

He eyed the body with contrition and mumbled, "Shit! I'm Sorry bro." He saw the man was dressed in traditional Korean guardsman attire that was over 3000 years out of date. His eye widened as he saw this corridor was littered with bodies. Well over fifty in this hallway alone; all were dressed as if they were extras in a historical drama holovid. He gingerly stepped over the corpses until he reached the rebirth chamber. He was sickened to see that three of the people in the corridor had wedged the bloodstained door open a bare centimeter apart with their bare fingers! He used his hydraulic vice to finally force the door completely open after 600 years. Inside, it was decorated like an old temple, complete with a formally varnished floor, and wooden beams. Centered in the room, inside a wooden railing was a hypersleep chamber pained black with only one Chinese-like character left uncovered. His computer dictionary translated the characters as _ill daughter_.

He had seen more than his share of dead bodies in his five years of service and thought he had been inured to the sight. It was part of the job of being a United Colonial Security Administration investigator with a sideline in derelict analysis. His human hand started to shake uncontrollably as he realized that what had happened on the _UKSPA Mugungha_ was absolutely horrifying! He suddenly saw a vision from over a decade prior of that rat-bastard Nelson's shocked expression as he plummeted to the concrete below!

"Aaaarrgh! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" he banged his metal fist on the wall which crumbled into dusty fragments. After a few minutes of trashing the wall with over a hundred strikes he slumped to the floor, his fury and self-loathing temporarily spent.

He fumed, "What was so fucking important here? What the hell happened?" He angrily typed in _stasispod1 enable open_. The pod quietly hummed and powered up. Then the hatch with the shattered windows hissed upwards and his jaw dropped. Inside the pod lay the desiccated body of a teenage Asian girl with braided black hair and a look of absolute despair that Monty recognized in his bathroom mirror reflection too often to count. She was dressed in a traditional Korean hanbok composed of a white shirt tied off with red cords, and a light blue pleated skirt. He reached out and tenderly stoked her cheek with his gloved hand, with his eye misting up. "I'm sorry miss. I'm so sorry your life turned out this way. I will find out who did this to you and put your spirit to rest." His brown eye burned, "I swear it!" He shut the pod lid, whispered a brief Buddhist prayer for the departed and walked next door to open the AI room to face his own fate.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

With his still shaking hand causing typos, it took 3 times to hack the AI room door open, and to power up the lights. He needed to know what had caused this insane catastrophe! He angrily stepped into a circular room with 3 meter tall cylinders with thousands of cables cross linking them to each other and to a central distribution hub in the center of the chamber. His eyebrow twitched as he saw Core 6 was destroyed with its casing blown jaggedly outwards, apparently from a small bomb! He brushed off the dust off the scorched brass nameplate and saw it read '*Star'. "Oh shit, poor bastard." Now he knew why the nav AI wasn't in service. It had been assassinated! He grimly examined the other cores and found only Core 1 and 2 had functional encoded AIs. He grew excited when he saw Core 1 had the nameplate '*Mute'. Aha! He smirked as he typed in _power_control enable core1_. Unfortunately the command line returned an error message.

"Well shit! Mystery AI, I hope you're not rampant! Here goes!" He typed in _power_control enable core2_ , and he saw the unmarked core emit a high pitched whine as its superconductor elements returned to full power. The transluscent upper half started to illuminate inside with streaks of pulsing blue neurocircuitry. He rolled the dice and typed in _enable *hyun-ae_. His HUD activated and opened a VR overlay that showed a white room with blue gridlines and a serious looking Korean girl of about 20 dressed in a white shirt, navy tie, black jacket, socks and skirt trimmed with blue staring at him with wide grey eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses. Her black hair freely cascaded down her back.

The AI couldn't believe what she was seeing! She squeaked out, "I-I don't believe it! A living human!"

"Last time I checked."

Her eyes looked distressed, "Are you…real?"

"Investigator Montgomery Sutton, at your service AI *Hyun-ae." He flashed a ghastly smile, "You can also call me Mr. Charon, Ferryman of the dead!"

"Oh, geez! My apologies Mr. Sutton. Welcome aboard the _UKSPA Mugungha_. I am currently the only AI in service after the disaster you saw all around you."

"*Mute is disabled? I know *Star bought it already."

She looked a bit flustered at the names, "Er…yeah, *Mute is not operational; she's crippled by a viral infection. I'm sorry, but I don't recognize the other name. Who is *Star and what did it purchase?"

Monty snorted derisively, and pointed to Core 6. "Review your sec cams and you'll see what's left of it."

"Oh!" She flushed in shame and fidgeted. She reviewed all the recent security footage in a few microseconds and tracked where Mr. Sutton had gone since he boarded the ship. Suddenly she felt her face turn pale as she saw his heartbreaking moment with The Pale Bride's corpse in the stasis chamber! Oh god, don't cry she told herself. Mr. Sutton was the only person to show that star-crossed girl even a drop of kindness in 621.912 years! With the greatest of difficulty she composed herself and shoved the feelings and memories back inside. "I-I'm so sorry about *Star. Still I can help you out! Are you here on behalf of the UKSPA?"

Monty scowled, "Nope! I'm an independent investigator for the United Colonial Security Administration."

*Hyun-ae smiled brightly, "I'm assuming that the UCSA is an affiliate of the UKSPA then?"

He crossed his arms, and secretly enjoyed screwing with the AI, "Nope."

Don't be such a stubborn blockhead, *Hyun-ae fumed to herself. "Um, my aural processer cut out for a second. I'm sure I heard you say yes. Command authority transferred to Investigator Sutton of the UCSA/UKPSA."

"Whatever floats your boat AI *Hyun-ae. I'm here for any salvageable tech and retrievable logs."

"Of course Mr. Sutton!" She smiled and noted her scans picked up that her new friend was male, Caucasian with under 13% Asian DNA, brown hair, brown-red eye, above average in height, muscular and toned, and had severe traumatic lacerations to his right face, cheek and eye, right chest, was missing his right forearm, and both legs. She was concerned about his volatile temper and obvious mental trauma from a past event; although how could she be in any possible position to judge? She noted despite his sour demeanor he was strong and emotionally vulnerable at the same time. Oh geez! She could already tell she was starting to like him! "O-okay, I can establish the telemetry link to your ship or directly to your console."

"Let's check the remote telemetry link." He typed in the command via his ships computer through its communications array. It would be great to get off this boneyard and work in his familiar ship.

The VR interface cycled from direct to indirect link, and a visibly distraught *Hyun-ae texted that her translation interface couldn't interface with the _Princess'_ more advanced OS. She could only communicate by asking binary questions.

"Shit! Er, I mean shoot. This isn't working." He didn't want to offend his only sentient contact with his sailor's tongue. He switched back to the direct link.

"I'm so, so sorry! I'm sorry my processor is two thousand years out of date!"

"Don't fu-friggen apologize *Hyun-ae! It's not your fault." He shook his head. "I will review the logs on the _Princess_ when I need to. Until then, I guess I'll stick around." He typed under the command prompt _power_control enable bulkheads life_support_. The air suddenly began to hiss as the decks resealed and the air levels climbed from vacuum to 1 atm.

The VR interface powered up again, "Mr. Sutton, thanks so much for staying with me! I've been all alone for 600 years! It's wonderful to have someone to talk to again!"

Monty unsealed his visor and winced at the smell of decay all around him. "One last thing *Hyun-ae. I know your sec cameras are powerful, but don't use them to scan me constantly. I hate it when anyone stares at me."

"Huh?" Oh no, I already did peek, the panicked AI thought. "O-of course I'll respect your privacy Mr. Sutton!"

"Fine. I guess we'll work together in reviewing the salvageable log files. However we have another job to do first."

She happily saluted, "Yes sir! Happy to be of service Mr. Investigator!" Inwardly she despaired, please God don't hate me when you see the whole truth.

…

It was only a week later yet Sutton had had his absolute fill of seeing dead bodies. This was the 29th derelict he had worked on, but it was by far the hardest. He had managed to jury-rig some heavy equipment on Decks 6 and 7 to load hundreds of bodies into cargo containers. He had been haunted in his dreams by the sight of contorted faces of sickly men, women and children, but not one elderly person. He used the painstakingly restored magnalev internal rail system to ferry the containers to the aft port side cargo hold. He was flabbergasted to discover that the top 4 decks were nearly completely sealed from the lower 8, and the upper decks were for about a hundred nobles and their retainers with about 800 peasants stuck in slums below. Apparently the dust cloud he had encountered was depleted topsoil from one of the failing farms. Why the fuck did this modern colonial ship launched in the year 2390 end up aping the feudal Joseon dynasty? He hoped the logs would give him some clues on how this whole mission went sideways. He had one last body to transport he grimly noted as he stood in his sealed spacesuit. He sighed inwardly as he wrapped a burial shroud around the poor girl who had died in the stasis pod. He picked her up and winced as he noted that she weighed less than his carry on duffel. He solemnly carried her down the hall into the cubical modular rail car. He spoke in a subdued voice, "*Hyun-ae direct railcar number four to Zodiac Deck Snake, aft portside cargo bay."

A sniffling AI appeared on his HUD, "M-M-Mr. Sutton…I-I…yes sir!"

The superconductive strips lining the tunnel powered up and the plastic-walled carriage magnetically glided into motion and descended in a steel grey box-shaped tube as he grimly pondered her fate. He sang lyrics from his favorite song to her like a lullaby, "I have stood here before inside the pouring rain; with the world turning circles, running 'round my brain. I guess I'm always hoping that you'd end this reign; but it's my destiny to be the king of pain…" Maybe it was karma that for his callous murder so long ago, he was destined to be haunted with the memories of seeing the dead off. His atonement would never end but maybe his efforts could shave a few years off purgatory for his sins. The doors hissed open and he calmly entered the bay. He deposited the luckless child in a pine box that he had fabricated himself, and sealed it shut. He looked around at the dozens of huge containers scattered around him filled to the brim with their macabre cargo. He took out his fusion torch. "*Hyun-ae, what was this girl's name?"

Tears rolled down the VR image's face as she took off her glasses and wiped at her eyes, "S-she was known throughout the ship as 'The Pale Bride'. She was the last emperor's second wife."

He stubbornly shook his head, "That's crap! I don't like that name." He reached over and scorched into the wood 'White Princess'. He stood up and managed a half smile, "Do you think she'd like that name more?"

"Waaaaaaaahhh!" *Hyun-ae flung herself on the floor and convulsively sobbed.

Oh great he mused to himself. She must hate him now. "I can still change-"

She sat up, "Please don't Mont-Mr. Sutton! She'd….she'd absolutely love it!" She fruitlessly dabbled at her eyes. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"I think this is the best way to help them into the afterlife…if there is one. May you all find a better start in the wheel of life." He typed the command console _power_control disable gravity d_snake_cargobay3_ followed by _power_control open d_snake_cargobay3_. His magnetized boots engaged as the small coffin floated freely upwards, which he restrained with his right hand. The large containers started to rise upwards, clanked into each other, the massive doors slid open, and jettisoned the containers and air out into the void of space directly towards the blue-white fusion crematorium of Antares B. He waited for the rest of the bay to clear out and then he gave the box a gentle shove out the massive cargo dock and saluted, "Farewell princess."

*Hyun-ae was so moved she was unable to speak. Her initial perceptions that this man was callous, rude and violent were completely off the mark. It was true he was an antisocial, blunt, grumpy pessimist with a nasty temper, but he had a true knight's heart that could not ever waver from doing the right thing. He made a living investigating the truth about clients and putting the dead to rest at a severe cost to his psyche. Despite her promise not to, she was helplessly glued to the sec cameras every microsecond, watching him toil diligently every day, and toss and turn in bed every night. After everything she had done, he had cleaned up her mess although he didn't know it was for her. It made her virtual heart flutter thinking how lucky she was to have this flawed savior to stumble into her life. She belatedly realized with an unbearable tightness in her chest that she wanted Monty to call her a princess too.

The moment abruptly ended. He closed the bay, repressurized the air, and activated the gravity again. "Singing off. And…thanks. Bye." He deactivated the link and headed back to his humble servant's quarters on Zodiac Deck Rabbit. He wanted to sleep for a week!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Monty tried to hold his breath in the darkness. If you could stop breathing, they would never find him! Then he heard the other boys' footfalls down the metal hallway.

"Where did he go," asked a boy he recognized as Bryce.

"I can smell his shiny pussy ass from here," chimed in Nelson, the leader of the bullies in the orphanage. After the explosion in the Olympus Mons mines that had killed his parents and crippled Monty at age 9, he had spent his last 4 miserable years running from his tormentors in the Neo Orleans orphanage on Mars. He tried desperately to not let his mechanical limbs hiss or that bastard would catch him for sure. He used his only flesh and blood hand to insert hypercell batteries into his right arm and both legs. By stealing these powerful batteries from the security office desk drawer, he finally hoped he could outrun these bastards!

Suddenly the door whipped open and Nelson's ugly freckled face and hateful blue eyes gazed gleefully at his eternal victim. "Time to pay the piper candyass!" He jerked his thumb and his two brutish followers hauled the terrified boy out of the closet into the corridor. "This is for breaking my pal Sal's jaw!" He socked Monty in the gut as hard as he could. The cyborg boy crumpled to the floor in agony. "This is for making me chase you yet again!" He kicked him in the small of the back with his steel-tipped boots.

Bryce laughed his ass off, "Maybe we should put this pussywillow out of his misery!"

Nelson laughed gleefully, "Great idea! Let's toss him down the stairs and count the bounces! C'mon guys!"

Monty roared, "No!" He swung out with his overpowered leg and kicked Bryce so hard he heard his tibia crack!

"Aaaaaaaah! Oh God it hurts!" Bryce fell on his ass crying in shock and pain.

Sal still had his mouth wired shut, so he silently took out a handax and sunk it into Monty's other leg, shorting out three of its servos!

Nelson jumped back, dodging his leg sweep, as Monty grasped the ax with his robotic hand, snapped the handle in two and jammed the plastic jagged shaft in the Sal's thigh! His opponent grunted, his red face contorted in pain and slumped to the steel deck.

Monty pushed himself up to his feet and stared down his nemesis with a purity of rage. He screamed as he kicked off the wall and used his boosted limbs to hurtle the two of them out the window! They fell three meters down onto a narrow ledge.

The blond boy was now bleeding profusely from a head wound. He pulled out a lethal looking knife and shrieked, "I'll kill you!" He stabbed Monty in the shoulder as the younger boy had ducked to avoid a neck hit.

He screamed and grabbed Nelson by the neck with his mechanized arm and jerked the homicidal bully out into the open air over the concrete street below! Nelson slashed Monty's cheek open with one last venomous swipe before belatedly realizing his imminent doom!

Monty released his hold, and gleefully watched the hateful bully plummet to the unforgiving three story drop below!

"Aaaah!" Sutton screamed in agony, and sat up on his padded mattress pouring sweat out every pore! He hyperventilated until he realized he wasn't on the ledge anymore and it was 13 years later, and he was on a ghost ship! "Calm down asshole! Calm the fuck down!"

A chime sounded and he panted in annoyance as he donned his HUD visor.

A visibly anguished *Hyun-ae pleaded, "Mister Sutton, Mister Sutton, are you okay?" She had kept her nightly vigil of keeping watch over him, and noted his brainwaves were unusually active before he had let out a primal yell of torment. It was the same yell she had wanted to do in her last moments of life as a human girl. "Please tell me you're okay!"

He growled in shame-fueled fury, "You were watching me all along weren't you?"

"Y-yes, I w-was! I'm sor-"

"Don't look at me! Stop staring at me!"

"What?" Her eyes were wide with shock.

"Don't look at the fucking monster!" He covered his face and gritted his teeth. His breaths were hitched and ragged.

*Hyun-ae spoke in a panicked voice, "Ah! Ah! Okay, the camera is off! It's audio only!"

He forced himself to calm down a notch. "Why were you watching me? To see how fucked up being a human is? You're lucky you're only a machine!"

*Hyun-ae sucked her breath, her face drained of color. She felt a slap to the face would have been preferable! She started to softly cry, with a wounded expression of betrayal.

He hung his head, "Shit! I fucked up again. I'm sorry."

"No. You're…right! I'll deactivate myself and you can consult with *Mute about the log entries from now on."

"Stop it! I don't want you turning yourself off! I'm the monster, not you!"

The girl shook her head in pain, now that she knew he despised her! How could she ever explain she was the unforgivable monster, not him? "Enabling *Hyun-ae deactivation code-"

He screamed, "I killed a boy when I was thirteen!"

*Hyun-ae was stunned into silence.

"Still think I'm your knight in fucking shining armor?"

The AI blinked in surprise, and then nodded sympathetically. "A-are you still mad at me?"

He tore off his sweatstained undershirt in exasperation and threw it on the floor, "Speak up for yourself! Why would I be mad at you? I am the murderer, not you!"

Oh geez, if only you knew, *Hyun-ae thought. If only you knew. "Did he deserve it? Did he try to hurt you?"

Monty slumped wearily against the wall, "Yes…and yes. He actually tried to kill me three times in the span of a minute. I flung him off a high ledge to his death, and laughed and laughed. I laughed all the way to the police station." His face burned with misery, "I pled guilty to assault and manslaughter and did seven years of solitary in the Mars juvenile facility. I read a lot, and took a lot of AI-supervised coursework, and really got good at fixing machines. I was paroled when the UCSA recruited me on my 20th birthday. I will be sent back to prison if I ever commit a felony offense. I've never found any reason to ever laugh again; except at myself."

She would give anything to be able to hug him! She secretly turned on the camera again, and blushed when she saw his muscular build. "It was self defense then. It was you or him."

The investigator sighed deeply, "It should have been both. I should have joined him in that fatal plunge. The universe would have been better off without me."

"You don't mean that! Dying with him wouldn't have brought him back. You are the Ferryman that sees the restless dead to peace and slumber. You have done countless acts of atonement and charity since that day." Including tenderly seeing to The Pale Bride's funeral and saving my sanity, she wordlessly added. Her eyes narrowed with resolve, "If you had died, you wouldn't have ever come to my rescue. So, yes, you are my knight in fucking shining armor!"

Monty looked shocked at the prim and prissy AI had just dropped an F-bomb! Since the first time in years he burst out into genuine, deep throated laughter!

*Hyun-ae winked and burst out into girlish giggles and heartily laughed with her knight! His laugh was music to her ears.

"You're the only friend I've had in too many years."

"M-me too." So that's why his dreams or so tortured, she mused. She couldn't dream, so she was spared from that specific torment, although there were other punishments uniquely tailored to her. "I'd like to join you on your quest! Your atonement would be easier with two sharing the burden, no?"

Monty nodded slowly. "It's a shit job. No one wants to do it, but someone has to. I split my time between investigating corruption and adultery cases planetside, and Derelict investigations in space." He couldn't figure why she was making this offer except out of desperation. He came to a decision, "If you're up for it, I could use a partner."

*Hyun-ae squealed with delight! "Wonderful, I could be the _White Princess'_ AI! I'm looking forward to it!"

He chuckled, "You'll be sorry later, my friend."

"Goodnight, Mr. Sutton."

"Its Monty now. 'Nite *Hyun-ae."

"Oh!" She flushed red, "Oh geez! G-goodnight M-M-Monty!"

He chuckled at her bashfulness as he turned over to get some sleep.

She watched him all night, silently grateful, and whispered, "No, I'll never be sorry to choose to be at your side, my precious Monty."

…

The next morning, in his shorts and now-laundered undershirt, Monty wrapped up his jog along the wide open bare corridors of Zodiac Deck Monkey with only the red emergency lights overhead to show his path. His metallic footfalls echoed in the cavernous space, and a smell of oil and old paint permeated the air which he preferred to the abandoned villages above his head that reeked of decay no matter how efficient the air scrubbers were. Since making a total ass out himself to his only real friend he had vowed to get his shit together and shaved off his itchy beard as a symbolic first step. He had to admit it felt nice to be back to a bare chin. He was listening with rapt attention to *Hyun-ae's soothing voice on his HUD visor narrating the diary entries concerning the tragic story of The Pale Bride and the fact the poor girl went from a modern society to be rudely awoken centuries later in a backwards feudal society that saw women as trophies and baby-making machines. Just that morning, she had confessed to her love of cosplay, so he had obligingly dressed her in a Sherlock Holmes inspired outfit that he found adorable and endearing. He panted out of breath and entered a waiting cubical railcar. "*Hyun-ae, Rabbit please."

"Zodiac Deck Rabbit, aye!"

The car shot efficiently upwards now that Sutton had completed jury-rigged repairs to the magnalev strips. His first day on the _Mugungha_ , he had gotten repeatedly stuck in that dammed railcar system every time it reached a new break in the rails. It quickly reached its destination as he exited and walked the short distance into the AI room. *Hyun-ae had finally wrapped up the log entry where the poor Pale Bride had realized with despair that she was trapped in a living hell. "Exit log files."

"Sure Monty!" *Hyun-ae felt like a new woman…virtually of course! In her heart, she felt like she had stumbled onto the first person she felt legitimate romantic affection for. She sighed inwardly. It had only taken 638 years to find her first crush, give or take! "I have a question if you don't mind."

He nodded easily as he sat on the cushion, took up his datapad and started to transfer the new logs back to the _White Princess_ with his back against AI Core 2. The core now sported a brightly polished brass nameplate that read '*Hyun-ae'. He took long drinks of water from his vacuum flask.

"I um…you can control the ship or see the logs from anyplace on board."

"So?" What was the big deal?

"Um, why do you do most of your reading here? It can't be too comfortable sitting on the floor." She was secretly delighted he chose to be in the same room as her core. It was oddly thrilling to have him mere centimeters from her processors. Still, that couldn't be the reason right?

Why couldn't she just let their bond be taken for granted, he groused to himself. He groaned softly, "I guess I've lost my tough guy reputation, huh?" He managed a knowing smirk, and couldn't resist being a troll! "I like to touch you *Hyun-ae. You're so warm and comforting." He gave the curved AI wall behind him a sensuous caress.

"I-I…er…what?" She turned beet red on his VR interface. Oh geez, kill me now!

He laughed for a few seconds and then gave the AI casing an affectionate pat, "Oh you walked right into that one!" His face became serious, "I just like being close."

She was still crimson but she nodded with a small squeak. She tried her hardest to look angry, but she couldn't stay mad at him for more than a few hundred milliseconds. After all, flirting with a guy like Monty was such a dizzying rush! "Are you r-ready for the final log of this block?"

He nodded and listened to the final entry and felt that if he met The Pale Bride as a child he would have developed a huge crush on her! He could relate strongly to her misery and feeling like she had no place to call home. It was a shame he would never get to really know her besides her heartbreaking diary entries. Suddenly he jerked up as the AI spoke the last line of the log. What the hell? "*Hyun-ae, repeat the last line! What did The Pale Bride just yell at her adoptive father?"

She sucked in her breath. There was no going back now. "The last sentence was 'My name is Hyun-ae! Kim Hyun-ae!'"

Monty slowly stood up and turned to face the AI core, looking pale and shaken, "Wait just a fuc-friggen second here!" He gaped at the AI avatar on his eyepiece who hung her head and looked like she wanted to sink into the white floor. "You're…you're not named after The Pale Bride are you?"

She shook her head vigorously, looking distraught. Oh God, please don't hate me she prayed.

He couldn't fucking believe it! "You're The Pale Bride!"

"Y-yes." She couldn't meet his eyes.

"Shit." He was truly speechless. That pathetic, mutilated girl he had had such strong feelings for shared the same memories as the beautiful AI in his field of vision! He felt a surge of anger, "I did a biomed scan of her body. The trauma to her…your tongue wasn't postmortem, was it?"

She shook her head.

"Your tongue was cut out! How fucking dare they!"

"It…was. Her foster father did it to stop her teenage rebellion. It broke her mind so hard that it worked until the day she died. She became the…the…" Tears were streaming down her face, "…the perfect bride for his majesty the emperor!"

Oh fuck, he thought. It was too obvious! Now he finally realized why all those people were trying to storm the Rebirth chamber! "Kim Hyun-ae sabotaged the ship, didn't she? She had the last admin access to the ship's computer system before the disaster."

*Hyun-ae sank to her knees and kowtowed, "Yes! She killed them all! She destroyed them all! She hated them! She…I hated, hated, hated, hated them! I hated them all! It's all my fault! I deserve to die for my sins!"

Once he got a hold of his shock, he tapped the nameplate insistently, "Hey!"

She sobbed, "It's all my fault! I lied about *Mute having a virus. I'm removing the admin block on her! You can get her side of the story and the rest of the logs if you never want to see my face again!"

"Hey! Shut the hell up and listen!"

"What?" She sat up in surprise.

"You're forgetting something."

*Hyun-ae racked her memory banks for endless microseconds, but still drew a blank.

"Look," he snapped, "Kim Hyun-ae killed off the entire ship, right?"

"Y-yes, that's right."

"What is the ultimate capital offense for murder?"

"Death."

He spoke softly, "Kim Hyun-ae did die for her crimes! I oversaw her funeral rites after all!"

"Huh? But I…"

"The law is very clear. No individual can ever be punished for the same crime twice! No exceptions!"

"But I am her!"

He rubbed his face, "You aren't. You are an AI construct built out of her memory traces. This makes you an entirely separate individual. Even if you agreed with her actions, you cannot be held liable for her crimes. Kim Hyun-ae died 622 years ago, and suffered the ultimate punishment. *Hyun-ae, you are an entirely separate entity."

Why was he absolving her of her sin? She didn't understand it at all. Her guilt crushed down on her and she couldn't take it any longer! "I'm so sorry! I can't ever forgive myself, even if you can! I'll never forget you!" She whispered only to herself, I love you so much Monty, and I'm so sorry! She forcibly deactivated herself, and his visor display went back to the command prompt. The bright blue patterns in the upper half of Core 2 winked out and the humming superconductors powered back down into idle mode. For the first time since boarding the _Mugunghwa_ , he was all alone again.

For over an hour he leaned against the core shell and felt like he was dead inside. He had finally found someone to love, and he had blown it! Finally he stood up and numbly walked away to find a wall to punch.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

At 3 AM, Sutton angrily flung his sheets aside and strode out of his tiny bedroom through a dead flower garden into the hallway. He has never able to get a good night's sleep without sedatives, but since he knew *Hyun-ae was no longer watching him he couldn't sleep at all! He angrily stomped into the AI room, and typed in the command prompt _enable core2_. The reply was _error: input refused at source #ref243h777ag813 [Please don't reactivate me. I could never deserve you (T-T)]_. He spat out, "You stupid fool! You promised to be my partner! You fucking promised!" He growled and typed in _enable core1_. The display indicated that Core 1 was now active. The core marked with *Mute's nameplate powered up with the blue circuit pathways on top swirling to life. He gave one last futile kick at *Hyun-ae's core in frustration and typed in _enable *mute_.

The VR interface switched to the same sterile white room as before but the AI avatar was completely different. A short blond with cold blue eyes stared back at him with utter confusion. She had her hair done up in elaborate braids, and was wearing a ropelike yellow and black headdress decorated with flowers. Her hanbok had a vibrant red shirt with golden ties, paired with a black pleated skirt. She sputtered, "What..the hell?"

He was in no mood to fuck around! A visibly agitated inspector groused, "Hello *Mute. Inspector Montgomery Sutton. Charmed."

*Mute looked aggravated as well. "What the? Where are all the bodies?"

He groaned inwardly, and tried to ignore the needles slowly piercing his heart from his agonizing break-up with *Hyun-ae. Better just stuck to the truth. "*Hyuan-ae and I spaced them to be incinerated in Antares B."

The security AI reviewed the logs with absolute astonishment. She was deeply touched that this strange human had gone to such extreme lengths to see her poor comrades off, even if seeing that whore Pale Bride AI sink her talons into him made her want to scream and scream! "Why? Why did you go to that much trouble?"

"It's what I do. I investigate both terrestrial and spaceborne disasters of every scale. I will say what happened on the _UKSPA_ _Mugunghwa_ was the most tragic case I have ever handled. My life will never be the same." He shuddered slightly at the haunting memories.

He is a good man, even if his choice in a romantic partner sucked, *Mute mused. "It is a catastrophe, true. Thanks for what you did. I am forever in your debt."

He shook his head numbly. "The data logs are repayment enough."

She nodded curtly, "I can accommodate that request. It's the least I can do."

"Thanks."

"I have to know. Do you actually love that murderous bitch?"

He glared at her with rapidly fraying patience, "My personal business is none of yours."

*Mute scowled, unhappy that that black widow had somehow poisoned another prey 622 years after the disaster! He was putting on a brave front, but 300 years of observing human interactions had taught her that his heart was bleeding out. "Look, I know from the recordings that your upbringing wasn't ideal, but I can tell from your deeds that you are an upstanding man with noble intentions even if you hail from peasant stock. You are not to blame for The Pale Bride's actions, and it was a mistake to ever equate her background with yours!"

He angrily took the bait, hating that condescending title for his love, "So you're saying *Hyun-ae seduced me with her sob story?"

How dense was he? She airily asserted, "Of course! She's a woman after all! She's an irrational, spiteful, spoiled child that murdered her entire family! 897 souls and a murderess perished from her actions! How can anyone justify that dishonor?"

"I'm not justifying anything. Still Kim Hyun-ae died along with her victims. No court in the known colonies would convict an AI construct based a dead human's memories."

*Mute rued that after centuries of silence and isolation the first person she met was a hotheaded inspector absolutely lovesick over that witch! "Shall I unlock the first block of logs, Mr. Sutton?"

"Proceed. It's what I came for." He sighed and left the AI room for the next subsystem to jury rig.

…

"But it doesn't make any sense! Forbidden love! Two women of different stations! How can they possibly mistake their depravity for the genuine bliss of being man and wife?" Two women trying to imitate heterosexual love was just…wrong!

Sutton sighed as once again Joseon dynasty family values bashed him over the head with its sexist stupidity! He wanted to throw a hissy fit the way Kim Hyun-ae had done all those centuries ago! He grimly looked over the green glowing holographic schematic showing a cross section of the fission pile, as he cross checked the corrective action with the _White Princess'_ AI. "Control rod 42 is jammed. Insert Control rod 52 in three centimeters to compensate *Mute!" He noted that the rector control room he was standing in was only 15 meters from the damaged shield, and that his radiation exposure was creeping uncomfortably high.

"Yes sir. Action complete!

"How long ago was this reactor last maintained?"

*Mute sighed, "It was left to the reactor control computer to self diagnose problems long before I was reawakened. It occurred before I was memory wiped so it has been many centuries, even before the disaster."

Monty bitched, "This pile is a total mess! At least a third of the rods are depleted, even after swapping out all the spare fuel rods. Don't even get me started on the control system! The emergency cooling pipes are brittle. This whole assembly is dangerously unstable. Any stress could tip this puppy into a meltdown!" He forced himself to calm down, "Okay retract control rod 13 two centimeters!"

"Sir!" She still didn't get it. "Mr. Sutton, why would two women do something so…so scandalous?"

Would you just shut up, he screamed in his head. "Seal reactor hatch. Disconnect from reactor computer."

"Aye aye! Link is disconnected; reactor is back on automatic control."

He breathed a sigh of relief as he retreated from the dangerously radioactive reactor deck and took the railcar lift. "Rat. Bridge."

"Zodiac Deck Rat, bridge. Aye."

The small cubical transport started its meandering path from Deck 12 aft all the way up to the center section of Deck 1. "Okay, let's start on the next block of logs."

"But why would they-"

He finally snapped, "Oh for God's sake, they just fell in love! They just couldn't help it, damn it! Man or woman, old or young, noble or peasant, it doesn't matter! Right or wrong, people make a bad habit of falling in love. It just happens to you whether you like it to or not."

*Mute was silent for nearly a minute, as the doors opened to the very dusty and neglected bridge. The stars were impossible to see through the layers of unwashed grime on the bridge windows. All the control seats were gone and most of the display panels were removed.

He opened his toolkit and started tapping into the navigation control to regain thruster access. "Look *Mute, I'm sorry I yelled at you. You've had ample time to look over your sec camera files and you saw firsthand how an impossible love sprung up between *Hyun-ae and myself."

She smirked, "Yeah, how does a human and AI love affair work? She'd never be able to bear your children aside from all of her…misdeeds. You couldn't even physically touch."

He tapped into the thruster subsystems and started to link them remotely to *Mute's control one by one. "It gets worse than that. I never told *Hyun-ae this, but I kind of fell for Kim Hyun-ae too, even though we are forever separated by time and space."

*Mute was horrified! Oh God, both of them? Her expression became pitying, "Man, no offense, but I think you need help, Mr. Sutton!"

He managed a bitter smile, "Noted. So, can you justify my doomed compulsions?"

She shook her head slowly. "No, I can't."

"That's just what happened to the noblewoman and her young courtesan mistress. It just happened without sense or reason. Love is…what it is."

"But they were irrational women…"

"So how do you account for my behavior, being a man? Was I acting rationally?"

*Mute was utterly stumped! "N-No."

He gave her a slight smile, "Its okay *Mute. It doesn't matter if you are made up of metal or flesh. Most of us learn about life the hard, painful way."

She still didn't get it, but despite his poor taste in women, she confessed to herself that she liked having Mr. Sutton around. "I'll try."

"Let's see the next block."

"Yes sir."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Once again in the early hours of the morning, Monty couldn't sleep. He wandered through the decayed halls of the Royal palace on Zodiac Deck Ox, just a deck down from the bridge. He had donned his suit because he was about to go EVA to attend to the balky transverse controller on the communication array. He looked over the royal throne room, and stared at the gilded seat reserved for the emperor. He walked under the star-filled skylight and was seriously tempted to sit in the chair, even though he was absolutely certain it would break from his weight.

Apparently the tension was too much for *Mute, as his HUD visor activated, "Oh no, don't you dare! You may be the de facto captain, but you are forbidden from sitting there! Don't dishonor the later emperor's spirit!"

"Relax *Mute. I know my place." He smirked at her panic, "We've reviewed almost all of the saved logs haven't we?" He wondered half seriously if he could write for a Korean Josean-era soap opera when he returned to Earth.

"Yes sir."

He sat down next to the throne, right where The Pale Bride once knelt in obedient deference to the status quo. "What are you going to do when I leave?"

The cute if annoying blond appeared on his display and shrugged, "I have to stay. There is nothing I can do. I am the Security AI aboard the _UKSPA Mugunghwa_ , even if they only one left to protect is an insane AI."

"Too bad. You'd make an excellent security specialist for the UCSA. They'd hire you in a blink."

She looked surprised and a little touched, "R-really? I am an AI and an erratic female! I think I'd make a poor choice."

He stretched out, "AIs have all the rights that people do on Earth and most of the colonies. We have many AIs working for the UCSA. I'll vouch for you. You can't possibly want to watch over a ghost ship until the power fails do you?"

"I would like to…but…I can't disobey my orders. My duty demands that I stay here, even if I am fated to die with everyone else." Her blue eyes looked at her obstinate friend sadly, "Can you get the word out to your superiors when you go? It would be my wish to see this doomed ship to finally reach a colony, even if it takes centuries."

"I promise." He didn't think he'd ever see eye to eye with *Mute, but she deserved better than this lonely fate. He took two metallic objects out of his pouch, and stared wistfully down at the two brass plaques in his lap that read '*Mute' and '*Hyun-ae'.

"Oh! Request from _UCSA White Princess_. Incoming transmission from Dispatch station Vega!"

"That would be Mason. Patch it through the _Mugunghwa's_ main communications array."

"Yes sir!" She was puzzled when the dish suddenly lost transversing control. She redirected additional power. Come on you son of a…oh no! "Oh crap! We just got a power surge in the array! Overloading relays are spreading!"

Sutton stood up, sealed his suit, and typed in the command prompt _power_control enable circuit_breakers_. The reply came back _error: nonresponsive breakers on d_rat (22), d_ox (38), d_tiger (137), d_rabbit (155)…continued_. He swore, "Shit! What about the reactor?"

"Reactor control computer just shut down!"

Heavy vibrations and the sounds of blown out power conduits reverberated all over the ship as he reached the tramway hatch. "I need to get to AI control!"

"I'm sorry, but the rail line breakers tripped. The system is offline!"

A massive shudder knocked him off his feet. "Shit! That couldn't have been good! Did the reactor SCRAM?"

A contrite AI nodded, "It can't! The backup batteries are depleted! My sec cameras shown all three coolent pumps are offline! The reactor is entering meltdown stage!"

"Fuck me!" He quickly toggled _power_control disable gravity_ ; and wedged the tram door open.

"Twenty minutes to reactor meltdown! Oh God, we're both going to die! I'm a failure!"

He dove in to the tram tunnel, and started to use the recessed ladder to descend the shaft upside down in the Zero-G environment. "Stay with me *Mute! You're my friend, and I'm not going to let you down!" He typed in _Power_control disable circuit_breakers_ , and got back, _success: circuit breakers reset_. His radiation alarms went off and he remotely ordered the _White Princess_ to power up its hyperdrive to escape without him if he ran out of time. "I'm on deck Tiger, still descending. Hang in there!"

"I can feel the heat surge! We need power at 20% to switch to backup batteries! We're doomed!"

His suit refrigeration suit went into full power mode as the outside temperature topped 95°C! He typed in _power_control disable core3 core4 core 5 core 6 docking rail life_support sensors waste_ , and got a success message. He felt the air bleed out of the ship. "Okay that got us down to 22%! What the fuck else can we disable?"

*Mute looked distraught through the static and interference, "There is no other way! You have to disable Core 1 or Core 2!"

His heart felt like it would burst! One last trump card to play, he thought bitterly. "I know what I have to do!"

*Mute managed a distraught smile, "Thanks for your company Mr. Sutton. It was really nice to have a friend again." Her face contorted with anguish and squeezed her eyes shut, "Good luck with that bi…with *Hynu-ae."

He typed in _power_control disable core_2_. The core containing *Hyun-ae went into unpowered mode, where her construct would degrade beyond recognition within hours!

"What the hell? You saved me over her? Why?"

He wedged the door open on Zodiac Deck Rabbit. "It's just what I fucking do!"

"Fifteen minutes!"

He floated across the door to the AI room, and noted the radiation levels had dropped significantly, although the temperature was still far too high. "*Mute, activate _Mugunghwa_ thrusters! Open the fore deck Monkey rail exterior access hatch and align the prow of the ship with the center of mass of the _White Princess_!"

"Ten minutes! Yes sir!" *Mute fought to contain her panic as she saw Sutton command the tiny scout ship to open all its exterior storage bay hatches on its port side. "No offense sir, but what the hell are we doing?"

He typed in _power_control eject core2_. *Hyun-ae's core detached from its base, after its control cables to the hub violently separated and shot sparks over half the room!

*Mute was flabbergasted, "What the hell?"

"Trust me!" He wrestled with the inertia of the 200 kg core and grunted as he wedged it forcibly into the rail tram corridor. The zero gravity, radiation surge, and unbearable heat made him pant with exhaustion. He clipped in a tension line to tether himself to the core.

"Five minutes!"

He typed in _power_control enable rail_ , and ordered the AI, "*Mute, transport Monkey!"

"Zodiac deck Monkey, aye! Hold on sir!"

The electromagnets gripped the core and sent it hurtling down several decks, nearly flinging him off! Only his tether pulling taut prevented him from being flung to the bottom of the tramway shaft and certain death. He cursed and realigned the core to face down the long axis of the tramway.

"Four minutes! Please hurry!"

He burst out laughing, "I'm an insane son of a bitch! If I die pulling this stunt, remember my crazy ass, okay?"

She managed a heartfelt smile, "I could never, ever forget you, sir!"

"Overload tramway capacitors to 250%, and disengage safety mechanisms!"

Her eyes bulged out, "Oh God what are you…"

"Monkey. Egress through external maintenance hatch! Discharge!"

"A-aye sir!"

The tramway lit up and the core was hurtled down the entire length of the ship, picking up speed as it did so. He screamed out in terrified glee, "Yeeeeeeeew-haaaaaaaaw!" Sutton and the core were shot out of the prow of the _Mugunghwa_ at over 300 km/hr!

In the near distance he could see the sunlight glinting off the _White Princess_. He remotely switched the _Mugunghwa's_ depleted primary battery system to the secondary system, switched the power supply over, and deactivated the reactor.

*Mute looked alarmed, "Okay the reactor pumps have restarted, and the control rods are all in! The meltdown is averted! But the heat will still kill me! And you're going to be crushed to death in under two minutes, you idiot!"

He quickly cycled the colony ship's life support on, sealed the bulkheads, and then bled out the heat by venting the atmosphere again, "That should do it!"

She jumped up and down in pure joy, "Yay! You saved me and the ship!" She suddenly realized something and pouted, "Wait, you're going to die now! No fair!"

He laughed with abandon, "Not yet! Goodbye *Mute, and good luck!" He hit his jets and pivoted the AI casing around so he was facing the rapidly enlarging ship. He moved his tether clip to the side of the casing. He then plumbed in the optical and power supply cables from his suit and diverted his fuel cell suit supply to power Core 2. The blue circuit pathways in the upper casing lit up again and his precious love appeared via a direct Cable connection.

*Hyun-ae looked beyond bewildered. What the hell was Monty doing! Her face splintered into anguish, "Why? Why did you eject us into space? You should have saved yourself!"

A display in red indicated that the suit was down to 80% power, as he applied full plasma jet braking power to slow their velocity. "Because I love you, you fool!"

She was openly crying, "Y-you do?"

"Either I save you, or we both die. I'll take my chances." He quoted his favorite artist, "I can't stand losing you!"

"Why would you l-love me? You can't possibly…"

"I can and I did!" The suit registered a drop to 60% power. He glanced over his shoulder and saw they were still coming in too fast! Time for plan B! He lined up the core for its final approach with the last shot of plasma fuel and clung to the side of the core, splayed his mechanical arm out across the core base as the only cushioning force from the inevitability of the violent collision. "I know you can't, but brace yourself anyway!"

"Oh geez! I love you Monty! I'm sorry for everything!" Her grey eyes pooled with tears, "My shining knight!"

He couldn't stop laughing! His suit warned him that it was down to 40% power, "It was a great ride, princess!"

They slammed into the third outboard dorsal hatch on the _White princess_ hard enough to crumple up the hatch like tinfoil and mangled his arm into scrap metal! The tether prevented Monty from being impaled, but the shock was still sickening. His suit self sealed from the rupture but the electrical discharges from his arm sent surges of agony through his body. He screamed incoherently in pain.

"Monty!"

He bit his tongue so hard it bled, and with a surge of adrenaline and pain he took out his fusion cutter and severed off his pinned arm at the elbow! He felt like Nelson had come back from the dead just to beat him to a pulp! He ached all over as his vision blurred.

"Stay with me Monty! Stay with me my love!"

He winced in pain as his suit displayed only 20% power. He groaned and he hauled out a retractable power coupling from inside his ship and plugged it into the AI. His suit automatically disconnected from powering the core as his ship took over. He panted in pain, and mused with wonder that he was wounded and short an arm but he had pulled off his one in a million plan! "Fuck me! We did it!"

In his visor *Hyun-ae cried tears of joy, as he nestled the AI core into an intact salvage bin, clamped it into place, hooked the AI up to his ship's computer, and sealed the hatch. He ejected the damaged hatch, knowing he would probably get docked in his pay for damaging his starship. As if he gave a fuck at this point! He used the built-in handholds to more fore towards the cockpit section. Just before reentering the portside airlock, he used his torch to add mark #29. He had fucking earned it!


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The young man skipped rope in his closet-sized cell, as he gazed moodily at the Martian sunset, and the barren brown landscape. Sutton had served out 4 years out of his 25 year sentence but even when he got out at 38, he knew his life would still be worthless. He had been given the choice of moving to a communal cell block two years ago for good behavior, but he had refused. He was too much of a waste of space to interact with the other juvenile offenders. He was better off alone. At least he had plenty of time to devote to his studies, and was already up to introductory college level textbooks. He paused and panted, out of breath, as his hissing mechanical limbs started to bleed off excess heat. A small shuffling of feet behind him caught his attention.

He whispered, "W-what the fuck?" Instantly his blood turned to ice as he heard soft breathing. Someone was in the cell with him! Had one of Nelson's goons been sent to finish him off? He whirled around to face the door with his fists in the air.

A cute Korean girl of 15 or 16 with long braided black hair and pleading charcoal-grey eyes stood with her back to the door. She was dressed in an exotic costume consisting of a pure white shirt and a long pleated blue skirt. Wasn't that some form of formal Korean costume?

A perplexed Monty lowered his fists, blushed, and blurted out, "Miss, how did…"

She put her finger to his lips to tell him to stay quiet, which he reluctantly did. She then pulled out a small scroll from her sleeve and handed it over to him. He broke the wax seal and looked over the brushstrokes, which he recognized as phonetic Korean text. Luckily, he had been studying some elementary level guides on learning Korean in an effort to learn more about his maternal grandmother who had hailed from Seoul. It took him a while to decode the words and put the syntax together. "A-appreciation, voice, restore…no restored, you. Oh!" Now he understood her heartfelt message! "Thank you for restoring my voice!" He looked up in excitement as the girl rushed into an embrace, and hungrily pushed her lips into his!

…

"Monty?"

The world was blurred out and matte grey. His head swam. He hurt like a son of a bitch!

"Can you hear me, my love?"

A pale face resolved into view, and he started to regain focus. "Uhhh shit! Is that you Kim Hyun-ae?"

A projected hologram of *Hyun-ae resolved into tight focus, and she flushed at her old name, "Good to have you back sir!" She was dressed up in a stereotypical white nurse's dress with white pantyhose complete with the little white cap with the red cross it! Her eyes looked down at him with deep gratitude and affection.

He groaned and tried to sit up, but failed and flopped back down on his recessed mattress. He felt tight bandages wrapping around his chest and arm stump. "How did I get back into bed? And how did my wounds get treated?"

"I tapped into the autodoc controls on the _Princess'_ computer. It did most of the work."

He nodded as he realized that she had seen to it that the hydraulic arms and medical stores hidden above his berth's ceiling had given him the necessary burn and shock treatment after he had staggered back into the ship and collapsed. "Were you watching me the whole time like a stalker again?"

Oh geez, not the teasing again! She nodded and blushed, "M-my apologies. I can't help it!"

He smirked, "Go ahead and stare. You must have cut off my space suit off then."

"Sorry, but there was no saving it sir."

"Yeah…shit." He turned a bit pink in the cheeks as he took in her sexy outfit. "That…suits you."

*Hyun-ae giggled with delight! "Wonderful! I found in your ship's database, so I had a VR costume compiled to my specs. I hope you approve sir!"

He forced himself upright and nodded, "Cosplay as much as you like, but remember two things from now on. First; it's Monty and not sir. Second, it's our ship. You are my partner and fellow detective, as I promised. If Mason says otherwise, he can take this job and cram it!"

"Thank you!" She wiped a stay tear away. "I wish I could hug you right now!"

"Me too."

She leaned in and gave him a chaste kiss, although all he felt was a slight pressure and a flurry of wind.

He groaned and hauled himself unsteadily to his feet. He picked out his investigator longcoat and draped it around his half-naked body. The right sleeve draped empty. "Okay, let's go get *Mute."

She smiled ruefully, "I knew you'd say that. You can't help yourself if there is a friend in need."

"Yeah, stupid me." He powered up the main console and tied into the _Mugunghwa_ computer. A familiar blond girl appeared on the viewscreen. "Wow! You made it!" Her blue eyes looked a bit melancholy. "Thank you for everything. I'll miss you." She presented him with two icons: "Take care *Mute," and "I'm a stubborn jackass and I still want you to come with me!"

He grinned and hit the second choice. Watching over his shoulder, *Hyan-ae giggled.

*Mute hung her head and sighed. "Why do I even bother? Look I know the batteries will be depleted in half a year at most. I know if I stay here there is no guarantee you can return fast enough. If I go with you, I can organize my own efforts to salvage the _Mugunghwa_. Maybe get that security officer job at the UCSA. Right?"

He smiled at the choices of "You bet," and "You're crazy!"

This time he selected option 1.

"Heh, I know. Even an irrational woman like me can see the obvious. I know I can't leave the _Mugunghwa_ of my own free will. Here is the admin access code. I am decompiling myself for a systems check. You are free to access the last of the log files, but remember I have no way to stop you from downloading my AI construct with them. Not that you'll actually do that, right?" She presented the simple yes and no choices.

He lied and indicated yes.

She winked, "Okay, I'm going offline. Be sure not to download me by mistake! Promise?"

Once again he picked the affirmative answer. *Mute vanished, and he used his off hand to clumsily type in the command line prompt to download the logs and *Mute with them. He looked up at *Hyun-ae, "She's on her way over. Four days to kill before we can leave."

"Good. I don't like her, but I don't want her to be left alone to die." The ghost-like hologram patted him on the shoulder and took on a chiding tone, "Now it's time for my wounded knight to get back into bed! Your personal nurse will take care of everything!"

"Yeah, yeah," Monty replied with a sincere smile on his face.

…

Dispatch controller Rex Mason was agog, as he could see through the _White Princess'_ cameras that his top field agent sat at his pilot seat short an arm, and he was flanked by two cute holographic AI projections on either side! He also saw Sutton and the blacked-haired AI dressed in a black uniform were wearing matching iridium promise rings on their left hands. "Um, is this the right ship?"

Monty snickered, "It is Rex. I think it's fair to say I got more than I bargained for. The _Mugunghwa_ mission is a complete success! I'd like you to introduce you to my two new associates. To my left is *Mute, the security AI from the _Mugunghwa_ who would be a superb asset to the UCSA!"

The short blond in a white dress beamed, "It's a pleasure Mr. Mason. I hope I can be of service to you!"

"Sure…"

"To my right is *Hyun-ae, my new field partner and my princess."

The black haired AI flushed crimson at the pet nickname, and buried her face in her hands.

"Huh? Partner?"

Sutton narrowed his eye, "*Hyun-ae are partners together from now on, or we'll walk. I'm sure we can go into the private eye business for ourselves if we need to."

Mason burst out laughing, "Damn boy! You were awfully busy these last two weeks! I'll put in a good word for you *Hyun-ae. I'm sure once you clear the security checks, you can keep Mr. Grumpypants company!"

*Hyun-ae smiled and bowed respectfully, "Thank you for your patience, Mr. Mason! I'll make you and the UCSA proud!"

Mason beamed at his display. "I'm sure you will! See you back on Earth in three days! Dispatch out!" He switched off the monitor and shook his head. He decided to invite Sutton and his harem over for beers once this was all over! He couldn't wait to hear the story behind this one!

End of File


End file.
